The Camorra and protection rackets: the cost to business

Based on the observations from the judicial and investigative evidence provided by prosecutors in Camorra areas in Italy, this investigation provides an estimate of the economic impact of extortion racket to businesses. In particular, the estimates refer to the total and average withdrawal of monetary amounts from the businesses victimised by Camorra clans. Further insights are provided in terms of economic activities mostly victimised, and specifically the construction sector, which is subject to a different type of extortion racket.

How Crime Spreads Through Imitation in Social Networks: A Simulation Model

In this chapter an agent-based model for investigating how crime spreads through social networks is presented. Some theoretical issues related to the sociological explanation of crime are tested through simulation. The agent-based simulation allows us to investigate the relative impact of some mechanisms of social influence on crime, within a set of controlled simulated experiments.

Non è più quella di una volta. La mafia e le attività estorsive in Sicilia

Il volume presenta i risultati di una ricerca volta alla descrizione dei fenomeni estorsivi e della loro intensità in Sicilia, raccontando, sulla base di appositi parametri oggettivi e di valutazioni soggettive degli esponenti del mondo delle associazioni e delle forze dell’ordine, le aree più esposte, quelle meno esposte, quelle dove i fenomeni hanno una rilevanza residuale, in una fase in cui i sodalizi mafiosi sono sempre più pressati dall’azione di contrasto. Per raggiungere questo obiettivo ci si è avvalsi di strumenti qualitativi e dati quantitativi, approfondendo l’analisi delle trasformazioni delle condotte estorsive durante la crisi, concentrandosi in modo specifico su casi emersi …

Calibration and Validation

The aim of this chapter is to summarise the problems incurred during the phases of calibrating and validating the extortion racket models used by the GLODERS project. The chapter starts with the discussion of the data availability and summarises shortly the contents of Sect. 4.3. It continues with a discussion of what parameterisation, calibration, sensitivity analysis and validation have to do with each other and ends up with a discussion of the validity of the GLODERS models.

La ricerca: il fenomeno del traffico di stupefacenti

Rischio e azione sociale. Il caso delle nuove tecnologie dell'informazione e della comunicazione

Modelli ad agenti e sociologia del crimine e della devianza. Aspetti teorici e metodologici

An Agent-Based Model of Extortion Racketeering

Mafias can be considered as criminal organisations that are in the business of producing, promoting, and selling protection. Here, we describe the Palermo Scenario, an agent-based model of protection rackets aimed to deepen our understanding of protection rackets, and help policymakers to evaluate methods for destabilising them. Additionally, since the system is explicitly specified, we can use it to investigate the entire causal pathway from cause to effect: not only from actions to Mafia destabilisation, but also the intermediate actions along the path and actors' internal mental representations among the population.

Mafia Methods, Extortion Dynamics and Social Responses

This chapter is devoted to exploring both the empirical results and the policy proposals produced by the GLODERS project. Based on 631 cases of extortions, the Sicily and Calabria extortion database represents a relevant achievement in the field of the research on extortion racket and it is one of the main results of the GLODERS project. Gathering a great amount of information, our empirical analysis revealed the existence of several differences in the extortive conducts carried on within these two regions, which are presented. Moreover, the chapter introduces the legislation related to the crime of extortion. Social and legal responses to the phenomenon are then discussed.